The Polar Express

I love that I am just now getting all caught up with our holiday fun on my blog.  Blogger fail.  But it must be documented...I have too much fun looking back!

So on December 1, on the tenth anniversary of Frank's passing, my mom brought all of her kids and all of her grandchildren to go on The Polar Express!!!  It seemed appropriate for us all to be together and talking about what Frank would be saying/thinking about all these ladies!

Before the big event, I let Scarlett watch the movie a few times because she wasn't familiar with the story and the book is just a bit too long.  By the time it was time to go, she was all pumped up to go to the North Pole!
Mission accomplished!

It was a really great experience for all the little ones, but I think Camdyn, 9, was a little too old.  They literally drove the train down the railway, stopped and said, "There's the North Pole," then drove back.  It was a total of one hour and pretty torturous for the adults, but the excitement on the kids' faces made it all worth it, cheesy as it sounds!

There was Christmas music playing after they finished reading The Polar Express and they served hot cocoa!  Santa even came along for a ride on the way back!  Perfect!

Of course, I have millions of pictures!

The granddaughters!

All of us!

Blurry, but all of us!

SANTA! ('s biscuits!)

Love their faces!

One side of the train: Scarlett, me, Max, Poppy!  (Sorry Clunies!)

The other side: Molly, Alyssa, Mum, Camdyn

An outside view of the train!

After this, we went to Whole Foods, so definitely worth the trip!

BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER.

We had a fantastic Christmas!!!  The gifts were toned down from past years and that just made it more fun!  Less stress, but more thoughtfulness!  Yes, please!

This was the first year that Scarlett got it.  It was magical for her and that added so much fun for me!  We made reindeer food, drove around looking at lights, talked about how Santa goes into the houses through the chimneys, left out the cookies and milk for Santa, and all that good stuff!

Here is our Christmas Day 2013 in pictures...

Happy birthday, Jesus CAKE!

Tracking Santa with Lulu...

Wrapping gifts:

Santa came!!!

And he brought "Staige" with him!  Scarlett was psyched!

Then we headed to GRAMMUM'S!

An entire month of blogging in one post.

Well, September has been an eventful and fun-filled month, so far!  First of all, Louisa Violet Francis turned THREE on the 10th!!!  (Ahhmmm...since her mother hasn't blogged about it yet, I feel like I'm safe...!)  Here is Lulu's special day in pictures:

Laughing??  And no fights?!  Scarjo must know it's her birthday!!!

Lulu S-L-O-W-L-Y dragged that kitty away...she is a smooth one!

Poppy loving the birthday shopping!

Captive audience...just waiting to get their hands on her goods!

Lulu loves her some chocolate!!!

Oh, Alyssa!

Lulu, the Ladybug Girl!

And then, the 13th marked ONE YEAR since Scarlett stopped nursing.  Just one.  How crazy is that?!  At the time, it wasn't a bizarre thing for me to nurse her to sleep, but now she's such a big girl, that I can't believe how much she has changed in such a short amount of time!

Poppy had her first visit to the Apple Farm!!!  Parties!  It was a quick visit and perfect because it was a Wednesday at noon -- no one was there!  Tyler, Mary, Brian, and Lulu met Scarjo, Poppy, and me there after our MOPS play date...very spur-of-the-moment!

Another eventful change that's going on in our family...we're following my crazy mother's lead and going vegan.  She watched Forks Over Knives and that was it for her!  Then she read Skinny Bitch and that was the end for the rest of us; she converted us all to at least vegetarianism.  One by one.  Molly was the first to convert and the easiest because Mum buys all her groceries and makes most meals.  Mary and I have been open to the idea, but harder to turn because we (okay, mostly me!) just struggle at cooking in general.  Now we have to find substitutes??  Too much.  But it's happening and I'm excited to make my babies into healthy eaters!  Goodbye, Splenda (no, thank you, luekemia!), half & half (sads forever.), and buffalo chicken (hardest. thing. ever.) and hello, tofu, "princess" (forbidden black) rice, and soy milk in my coffee!  So far, so good!

Also, I went to the Ulta Benefit Brow Bar and had my eyebrows done!!!  After Poppy was born, my eyebrows fell out.  For reals.  Sooo, off to Ulta I went, after very badly trying to fill them in myself for the last 11 months.  The wax girl there was a miracle worker!!!  Totally worth the $12/per eyebrow (what!!!) wax job.  Totally.  Here is the evidence:

Clearly, I'm psyched!  

And now that September is quickly coming to a close...I need to order Scarlett's Halloween costume SOON!!!  I have had it planned for a few months, but keep forgetting to actually buy the costume.  Struggle.  Here she is last year...two days before Poppy was born!  I am not sure if I can come close to this cuteness, but I'm certainly going to try!

Happy Easter!

The ladies are ready for their Easter egg hunt!

Poppy Ballerina<3 td="">

"Back it up, sistah!"  --Scarjo

Brave Lulu with Easter Bunny!

Bein' Festive!

Every year, I always plan on doing all things festive for the appropriate season, and I usually succeed (Minus Maple Sunday; I can never remember when it is), but this year I am a hundred years pregnant.  That changes things bit!  I want to take Scarlett to the apple farm, corn mazes, and pumpkin lands, but I just don't have the energy, so the most festive thing I had done until today was make sure her halloween costume was here and ready, just in case I have an itty bitty baby to also take care of.

I realized that I was going to have to step up my game when Scarlett shrieked with excitement over the neighbors halloween lights an decorations.  (over-achievers.)  She's getting to the age where traditions mean something to her and I wanted to make sure that we had some festive stuff going on.

Honestly, I had planned to step up to the plate during the Christmas season and have Tyler decorate the house!

Mary and I had made a million plans to go to the apple farm all Fall, but it had yet to happen.

The only reason we even had pumpkins that were maybe going to be carved was because Auntie Mary took Scarlett and Lulu out to the local grocery store to pick them out!  Mom fail.  I missed the first pumpkins that Scarlett ever picked out!

Clearly, I have been slacking this season in the fun, festive department, so when Mary suggested we go to the apple farm, I jumped on board!

It was a quick 15 minute drive to get there, but once we arrived, we soon realized we'd missed prime apple-picking season; the place was dead.  Still, we excitedly picked out an empty bag and headed out to the field.  That was their favorite part; Lulu and Scarlett were obsessed with picking out any apple to stick in their bags!  It was so fun to watch!  (Though, I'm not even gonna lie, when we got home and looked through our apples, we realized that most of them were gross and bruised, but it was the experience that mattered!)

Ready for some apple picking!

Now as far as those pumpkins went, Mary kept trying to convince me to carve them, but never seemed to work out.  Carving was either going to be too messy and I was going to have company over or we'd find something else to do with the girls.

Turns out, today was the day!  Apple picking and carving pumpkins back to back -- hello, festivity!  I am taking no credit for the Fall fun because Mary carved Lulu and Scarlett's big pumpkins and Tyler came home early and carved "Smith" into the baby pumpkin that Scarlett had picked.  I was just the photographer of all the Fall Festivities!

Carving pumpkins outside because the weather was THAT nice!

After the pumpkins were carved, the girls had a dance session on the front lawn!  Lucky neighbors!  

Lulu's ballet dancing!

Now I'm getting ready for my doctor appointment this morning -- happy 40 weeks to me tomorrow!  I wonder if baby 2 will make her appearance before halloween or if she'll be a November baby...?!